At the felicitation ceremony of India’s medal-winning contingent from the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships—held in New Delhi from September 27 to October 5 last year—Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya had said in his address to the winners, “You are not para athletes, but power athletes of Bharat… You have transformed disability into determination.”
The minister’s remarks were not unfounded. The tournament, which took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, was the largest para sport event ever organised in India, featuring over 2,100 participants from 100 countries competing across 186 medal events. This was also for the first time the event was hosted in the country as well as in South Asia. But what made the event truly momentous was the medal tally—22 in all (6 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze)—of the Indian team, which finished 10th overall in the final standings.
Incidentally, the outstanding performance in the championship came just a year after India’s Paris 2024 Paralympics campaign, another milestone in the country’s para sports history. India achieved its best-ever performance with a record 29 medals (7 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze), finishing 18th overall. A contingent of 84 athletes competed across 12 sports, including new additions like para cycling, para rowing, and blind judo, with shooting, badminton, and athletics delivering major wins, including multiple world records and firsts for Indian para athletes. The 29-medal tally was also a huge uptick compared to India’s Tokyo 2020 count of 19 and a solitary medal at 2012 London.
Javelin icon Navdeep Singh’s remark just after Paris 2024 summed it up: “Before Paris, no one. After Paris, champion.”
Wheelchairs to wings
Last year, Paralympic silver medalist Bhavina Patel scripted history by becoming the world No. 1 in women’s singles (wheelchair classes 1-5) in para table tennis. The achievement came after her stellar performance at the ITTF World Para Events held in the US in August 2025. Patel clinched two medals—a gold at the ITTF World Para Elite Championships and a silver at the World Para Future Championships—establishing herself as the top-ranked player globally in her category.
“This is the right time to be in the space as India is going to be the face of world para games,” says Patel, 39, who currently works with the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. In the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Patel won a gold medal in the women’s singles class 3–5.
Agrees former world and Asian Para Games champion Ekta Bhyan, 40. “It is heartening to see that there is a positive change taking place in India due to the medals at international platforms in para sports. Due to this, persons with disabilities are getting visibility and recognition,” says Bhyan, who represents India in the club throw event (F-51 category).
According to the disability sports criteria, participating athletes are given a classification depending on their disabilities (the ‘F’ in Bhyan’s F-51 category, for instance, denotes ‘field events’, the other being ‘T’ for ‘track events’; athletes who have a spinal cord injury or disability like Bhyan fall in T/F 51-58). Incidentally, club throw is the only discipline in para sports especially designed for para athletes with disabilities in all four limbs.
Bhyan is a quadriplegic and has been a wheelchair user since 2003 when she met with a road accident damaging her spinal cord. “Quadriplegia is one of the most severe disabilities impacting many organ systems. It takes a lot of structured training because of limited muscle strength,” says the Hisar native who is currently working as an employment officer after clearing the Haryana Civil Services Examination in 2011. She represented India at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where she finished sixth.
Bhyan started playing in 2015 as a way to get her fitness back. She met Arjun Awardee Amit Saroha, her current coach, who inspired her to become a para-athlete like him. “Para sports has proved to be a great medium of empowerment for the community,” she adds.
Breaking barriers
Growing up, Harish Prabhu (name changed on request), 25, was often told that he would not be able to achieve much simply because he was an amputee (below the knee). “In public, I rarely wore shorts at first. Whenever I did, people would stare, and I never quite understood why. Over time, sport gave me the confidence to face those moments and challenge the stereotypes attached to my disability,” says the Bengaluru resident.
Everything changed when, at 16, Prabhu was selected for a running clinic led by a prominent German Paralympic medallist. “Coming from a humble background, my family made huge sacrifices, especially financial ones, to support my dream. My parents, along with my uncle and grandmother, were among my strongest believers,” he says.
At 17, Prabhu received his first running blade, which allowed him to train seriously and compete alongside able-bodied athletes in his hometown. “That same year, I lined up for the 100m and surprised myself by winning silver against senior athletes, a moment that truly made me believe I belonged at the international level,” says Prabhu, who’s now preparing for his peak season, continuing his journey of breaking barriers, both on and off the track.
Similar is the story of Mohita Desai (name changed on request), 22. Just as the amputee swimmer, who’s currently training in Bhiwani, was preparing for Paris 2024, she faced a major setback with her prosthetic leg. “The pain was so severe that I could not complete my set distances. I finished with a world ranking of 12, while only the top 11 qualified for the Games. It was heartbreaking,” she says. However, Desai says: “Challenges are ornaments in an athlete’s journey, and life must be enjoyed in every moment. Challenges, to me, keep the hunger alive.”
Desai was born with a deformity that was later amputated. “I grew up as a swimmer and today, I am training as a triathlete with one clear dream to win a Paralympic gold medal for India,” adds Desai.
Inclusion, empowerment
Aruna Tanwar became India’s first para taekwondo athlete to compete at the Paralympics, opening doors for the sport nationally. Pranav Desai emerged as India’s fastest blade runner, while Varun Singh Bhati made a remarkable comeback to win a bronze at the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships after a prolonged injury.
Such success stories don’t happen overnight. They reflect the impact of timely, specialised support from organisations like GoSports Foundation, a non-profit working in the Indian sports ecosystem, especially para sports. “India has always had strong para-athlete talent, but for a long time that talent existed without structure, planning, or sustained support. When we launched the Para Champions Programme in 2015, the idea was to bring professionalism, long-term vision, and credibility to the Indian para-sports ecosystem,” says Nandan Kamath, managing trustee of GoSports Foundation.
“We wanted to move away from one-off assistance and instead focus on meaningful, timely interventions that could genuinely impact an athlete’s career. That meant going beyond financial aid to include sports science, medical interventions, prosthetics, adapted equipment, nutrition, and rehabilitation,” adds Kamath.
GoSports supports para athletes through three programmes: Samarth Para Sports Programme, exclusively funded by Hyundai Motor India Foundation; Murugappa Raising Talent Sports Scholarship, which is a mixed programme exclusively supported by the AMM Foundation; and Para Champions Programme, which has donors like IndusInd Bank, AT&T, Herbalife and Gameskraft Foundation.
Today, GoSports supports 63 para athletes, with more than 150 para athletes benefiting through its programmes over the years.
Such focused institutional support, combined with personal grit, is redefining the para sports ecosystem in India. “The idea has always been clear: to move beyond one-time sponsorships and instead build sustained pathways that enable para athletes to train, compete and excel at the global stage, while contributing meaningfully to India’s growing Paralympic movement,” says AS Sahney, chairman of Indian Oil.
Since 1986, when the state-run oil major began sports recruitment by inducting its first batch of cricketers, it has supported close to 200 sportspersons, with 153 athletes currently under active support across mainstream and para disciplines.
Indian Oil’s structured focus on para sports has evolved steadily over the years, driven by the belief that sport is a powerful instrument of empowerment and inclusion. “This commitment was institutionalised through dedicated programmes and national-level collaborations,” explains Sahney.
A major milestone was the launch of Indian Oil Divyashakti, a first-of-its-kind para-sports scholarship programme supporting 100 para athletes across 16 sports, with 50% representation for women, for a three-year period. This was complemented by Indian Oil’s role as principal partner of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) under the ‘Road to Paris Paralympics 2024’ programme, followed by a long-term association under the ‘Road to LA Paralympics 2028’ initiative, with a committed financial outlay of Rs 12.5 crore.
“Through these initiatives, Indian Oil today supports para athletes via scholarships, branding partnerships, international exposure programmes and tenure-based engagements, including exceptional athletes such as Sheetal Devi, the world’s first armless archer,” adds Sahney.
The way forward
Para sport in India is at a crucial and exciting juncture. There is growing interest, visibility, and willingness from people and organisations to support para athletes and be part of their journeys. “Hosting the World Para Athletics Championships in 2025 was an important milestone, and it is encouraging to see CSR funders increasingly prioritise para sports as a focus area. However, this momentum now needs to be channelled into structured, long-term systems,” says Kamath of GoSports Foundation.
India’s para athletes have never lacked talent, determination, or the will to excel — what has often held them back is the system around them, says Sminu Jindal, founder-chairperson of Svayam, a leading accessibility rights organisation, and MD of leading iron & steel pipes and pellets maker Jindal SAW.
“The real challenge lies not in the athletes, but in bridging the gap between intent and implementation. Today, accessibility across infrastructure, transport, and support systems remains inconsistent. Athletes often find themselves navigating barriers outside the field — whether it is reaching the venue, accessing training centres, or finding suitable accommodation,” says Jindal.
According to her, one of the most critical and often overlooked challenges is transport—especially the railway system. “Many para athletes in India come from rural and semi-urban backgrounds, where railways are the primary mode of travel. If railway stations, platforms, ticketing systems, and coaches are not fully accessible, the journey itself becomes the first barrier,” she explains.
“Making railway infrastructure accessible is not just a convenience — it is a gateway to participation,” she adds.
Svayam has been working for over 25 years to promote accessibility and inclusion across India. It has been the accessibility partner for the World Para Athletics (WPA) India chapter since its inception in India, supporting marquee events such as the World Para Athletics Grand Prix, New Delhi, and World Para Athletics Championships, New Delhi.
“We have actively supported national initiatives like Khelo India Para Games, where our role has focused on ensuring that accessibility is embedded across venues, athlete movement, and event operations. We have also extended our support as an accessibility partner during the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 and Paris Paralympics 2024, working closely with stakeholders to promote accessibility readiness and awareness,” adds Jindal.